Recommendations
Books Like Doctor Faustus
Best books to read after Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann
Readers who love Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann are drawn to its combination of the most ambitious formal structure in twentieth-century German fiction (the twelve-tone composition as the formal principle of the novel itself), the investigation of the relationship between artistic genius and moral responsibility, and the parallel between Adrian Leverkühn's demonic pact and Germany's pact with fascism. They want works that deal with the Faustian bargain, the German catastrophe of the twentieth century, the relationship between artistic power and human warmth, and the great humanist novel that investigates the collapse of the humanist tradition.
- 1Buy
The Magic Mountain
by Thomas Mann
The companion — Hans Castorp at the sanatorium. The companion investigation of the same German cultural themes: where The Magic Mountain is the education of a naive young man in the ideas that led to the First World War, Doctor Faustus is the investigation of the genius who embodied the impulses that led to the Second
- 2Buy
Buddenbrooks
by Thomas Mann
The companion — the decline of the Buddenbrook family. The companion investigation of the same German bourgeois world from the beginning of Mann's career: the artistic hypersensitivity that destroys the Buddenbrooks is the same force that, in Leverkühn, becomes demonic genius
- 3Buy
Faust
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The companion as the predecessor that Doctor Faustus explicitly rewrites: where Goethe's Faust is ultimately saved because he continued to strive, Mann's Leverkühn is not saved — the twentieth-century version of the Faustian bargain has no redemption
- 4Buy
Death in Venice
by Thomas Mann
The companion novella — Aschenbach's passion for Tadzio. The companion investigation of the same theme: the artist who renounces ordinary human warmth for creative power, and the catastrophic consequences. Doctor Faustus is what Death in Venice becomes when expanded to the scale of a lifetime and a nation
- 5Buy
The Origins of Totalitarianism
by Hannah Arendt
Arendt's companion investigation of the historical and philosophical roots of fascism. Both are investigations of the same historical catastrophe from different angles — Arendt's historical-philosophical and Mann's biographical-fictional — and reading them together is one of the most illuminating experiences available in twentieth-century literature
- 6Buy
Philosophy of Modern Music
by Theodor Adorno
Adorno's companion investigation of twelve-tone music and its relationship to modernity. Mann wrote Doctor Faustus in dialogue with Adorno; the novel's account of Leverkühn's music is based on Adorno's analysis of the twelve-tone method, and the two works are companion investigations of the same musical and cultural catastrophe
- 7Buy
The Tin Drum
by Günter Grass
Grass's companion German novel — Oskar Matzerath drumming through the Nazi period and after. The companion investigation of the same German catastrophe in a different mode: where Mann investigates through the elevated form of the humanist biography, Grass investigates through the comic-grotesque of the unreliable dwarf narrator
- 8Buy
Tonio Kröger
by Thomas Mann
Mann's companion early novella — Tonio's love of the bourgeois world he has lost. The companion as the prototype: Adrian Leverkühn is what Tonio Kröger becomes when the loving relationship to the bourgeois world is replaced by the demonic relationship to absolute artistic power
More Doctor Faustus Resources
More Reading Recommendations
View all →Monthly Newsletter
Never miss a big release
Get the most anticipated upcoming books delivered to your inbox once a month — no spam, no filler.
Monthly only. Unsubscribe anytime.
Book links are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, BookReleaseRadar earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.